Start Writing your Bestseller!

I came across this inspirational infograph by Essaymama on Shannon A. Thompson’s blog. We get to see where our favorite writers started, and how long it took them before they found success in the form of a bestseller.

Some authors started out as young as 13 and others as late as 65. Virginia Woolf started writing at 27 years, but only become popular at 43. Haruki Murakami was a bar manager till 29 years, and Charles Bukovski a postman ’till his 40s. The moral here is clear: it’s never too late to start writing your bestseller. Just don’t give up!

Ok actually by birthday I mean birth month, and by birth month I mean birth 4 month. I just deserve a longer birthday, because I just do.

My birthday in the US is 01-23 (which is awesome until I travel overseas and it turns to 23-01, it makes European adventures just slightly depressing but oh well, it’s a struggle I live with). But there’s always cake my friend… there’s always cake…

I suppose you have to consider the context in which these people started writing and how their success came about. What connections did they have, what careers before they started writing (eg journalism).

The one that stands out to me is Stephen King. Look how long he was writing before his first published book, Compare that to EL James and you see what a lottery success can be.

I liked comparing the graphics, Nicholas. George Orwell’s writing was always important to me as a teenager, and his period of success was very small indeed. Then again, he died at 47, so we will never know what he might have done had he lived longer.
Best wishes, Pete.